We’d like to make the player roles of Football Manager understandable for everyone! That’s why we have collected all the best guides about Football Manager player roles and how to take advantage of player role combinations and duties to create better tactics on Football Manager from Team Passion4FM in one place!

On top of that, you’ll learn what to look at when searching for players suited to play in a specific player role, how the player role works in the match engine and what you can expect from the role with their set tactical instructions both in- and out of possession.

Understanding the different movement patterns of the Football Manager player roles is one of the most important aspects in tactics creation. Secondary, knowing what to look for in a players’ abilities and the required set of skills required to perform in the player role is a must when trying to improve your squad by making new signings.

In Football Manager 2025, there are a huge variety of player roles to consider, all with different duties and positional abilities enabling you to create different football tactics that could mimic the real world, or perfect a trending tactical style of real-life football tactics on Football Manager.

Some of the player roles in Football Manager is designed to make positional play tactics work on Football Manager. Below you’ll get a better insight into how to use these roles to follow the rules of positional play, or to create tactics that creates better goalscoring opportunities, doesn’t concede goals, or will triump on the counter-attacks, as we explain all the different roles from defensive third to the different roles of attackers and creative playmakers that helps to add that necessary flair to open the opposition’s defensive block.

By understanding the different player roles and how they will behave within the match engine, botn in and out of possession, will help you in your quest to create your next tactic. However, if you find it difficult to create your own tactics on Football Manager, you can always take advantage of the number of overpowered and well-tested Football Manager 2025 tactics from us and our contributors.

This collection of Football Manager player role guides from us and our contributors will be updated as soon as new tactics guides about the topic is published.

Football Manager Player Roles: Defensive Third

The Inverted Fullback by FMNatics

The Inverted Fullback could be a useful role to protect against counter-attacks in a back four system. The Inverted Fullback in Football Manager is only available on a defend duty, and will function more or less like a standard fullback when your team is out of possession.

However, as you’ll learn in this tactics guide to the IFB role on Football Manager his behavior will seek to provide defensive stability at the back rather than making overlapping runs down the flanks – enabling you to use a rest defense of three players at the back whilst overloading the opposition with more players attacking through the center.

Learn more about the movement patterns of the Inverted Fullback with FMNatics brilliant tactical guide.

Player Role Guide: Libero by FMNatics

The Libero could be described as a modern-sweeper which maintains his position as a central defender out of possession but who gets forward into the midfield line when the team is in possession to overload the center of the pitch.

Invented by Franz Beckenbauer, the Libero could be described as a creative defender who are free from his defensive duties in the attacking phase.

Learn more about how to use the role in your Football Manager tactics with FMNatics’ tactical guide about the Libero role on Football Manager.

Taking Advantage of the Half Back Role on Football Manager

The Half Back is a fascinating role in positional play tactics. Behaving something between an aggressive sweeper and a defensive midfielder, he can be a great outlet when you want to have numerical superority when building out from the back.

Get a better understanding of how to use the Half Back role within your Football Manager tactics by watching FMNatics’ complete guide to the Half Back